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" I am a stubborn optimist: I was born an optimist and will remain an optimist. "

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" Developing and newer democracies are much more susceptible to the tactics of populists and demagogues - they often do not have strong institutions, free press, or the infrastructure required to defend their nascent democracies. "

" The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the states in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being. "

" We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems, if only we can find the political will. "

" What governments and people don't realise is that sometimes the collective interest - the international interest - is also the national interest. "

" Time and again, when member states and the governments are faced with an insoluble problem, and they're under pressure to do something, that something usually ends up being referred to the U.N. "

" The question is the morning after. What sort of Iraq do we wake up to after the bombing? What happens in the region? What impact could it have? These are questions leaders I have spoken to have posed. "

" When people say the U.N. is useless, I ask the question, which U.N. are we talking about? We have the U.N. that is a secretariat led by the secretary general, and we have a U.N. made up of member states who give us our mandate. "

" Shifting towards low-carbon energy systems can avert climate catastrophe while creating new opportunities for investment, growth, and employment. "

" On climate change, we often don't fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a problem waiting to happen. "

" Many African leaders refuse to send their troops on peace keeping missions abroad because they probably need their armies to intimidate their own populations. "

" Iraq has a new opportunity to comply with all these relevant resolutions of the Security Council. "

" Unfortunately, very few governments think about youth unemployment when they are drawing up their national plans. "

" Governments have to conclude a fair, universal, and binding climate agreement, by which every country commits to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. "

" More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development. "

" If the United Nations does not attempt to chart a course for the world's people in the first decades of the new millennium, who will? "

" Sometimes I walk into a situation and know someone is going to provoke me, and I just simply refuse to be provoked. "

" Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and resources that are vital in helping to build a more robust global community. "

" Sometimes leaders slide from the role of freedom fighter into the presidency, which they may be unsuited for, but everyone accepts it until they hit the bump in the road. "

" Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development. "

" I don't share the view that the ICC is anti-African. The ICC is not putting Africa on trial. The ICC is fighting impunity and individuals who are accused of crimes. "

" Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance. "

" No single solution or actor can deal with the complex and interrelated challenges to electoral integrity arising from manipulated data, hate speech, and fake news. These phenomena are not new; they have been part of electoral cycles since the advent of democracy. "

" The Arab Spring reminds me a bit of the decolonisation process where one country gets independence, and everybody else wants it. "

" Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world. "

" The U.N. doesn't have any troops; we borrow them from governments. "

" When economic conditions are difficult, people tend to be less generous and protect themselves; the question of solidarity doesn't mean much to them at that time. "

" I think that my darkest moment was the Iraq war and the fact that we could not stop it. "

" Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family. "

" If citizens do not believe they can change their leaders through the ballot box, they will find other ways, even at the risk of destabilizing their countries. "

" Change is a process which has to be managed. "